(The following article by Leonard N. Fleming was posted on the Philadelphia Inquirer website on May 15.)
PHILADELPHIA — They once endured nonworking bathrooms and the lack of running water. When they washed their hands, they had to use window cleaner or turn on a fire hydrant.
Years after getting running water and working toilets, the 12 employees at the Ameriport intermodal rail center in South Philadelphia are resisting what they feel is the ultimate slight: losing their jobs by the end of the month.
The Teamsters Local 107 workers, who put freight containers from ships onto trains headed for Canada and the Midwest, have been unable to negotiate work at the 136-acre rail yard that will open soon at the former Philadelphia Navy Base.
The workers, skilled in operating machinery that places containers of frozen beef, dry goods and hazardous material on trains, say they have been rebuffed by Pacific Rail Services, which will operate Mustin Field Intermodal Facility for Norfolk Southern. The Delaware River Port Authority is financing the deal for $16 million, to be repaid in 20 years.
The Ameriport workers say that once they revealed how much they earned – $20.48 an hour plus benefits – negotiations with Pacific Rail ceased. Pacific Rail reached out to another Teamsters unit, whose members made made less money, but was rejected. Teamsters officials say they now believe the firm will hire workers from out of state.
“Business is business, but this is a whole different ballgame when you’re getting all these public funds and you’re eliminating 12 local jobs,” said Mike Mitchell, an Ameriport employee and a trustee of Local 107.
A spokesman for Virginia-based Norfolk Southern said Pacific Rail could operate the facility as it saw fit under the operating lease agreement.
“We do not get into the hiring practices of our terminal operators as long as their employees successfully pass a security background check that we require of all of our contractors,” said Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman in Plymouth Meeting.
A person who answered the phone at the Seattle offices of Pacific Rail declined to answer questions about the situation. David Mazella, whom the Teamsters identified as a Pacific Rail negotiator, did not return numerous phone calls.
The Teamsters workers are planning to picket the new facility. Some of their ire is aimed at the port authority because even though it outsourced Ameriport’s operations to Logistical Transportation Services Inc. some years ago, the authority owns the property for the new rail center.
Shawn Dougherty, an Ameriport employee and the business agent for Local 107, said they were “banging on every political door that we can” to draw attention to their situation.
Dougherty said he had met with representatives for Pennsylvania politicians such as U.S. Reps. Curt Weldon and Robert A. Brady and State Rep. William Keller, and that Brady and Keller had promised to be on any picket line with them.
“All this can be avoided,” Dougherty said. “All we want is a smooth transition here. We want to maintain our jobs.”
Port authority officials said that while losing a job was hard, the Ameriport workers had known for two years that the freight-transfer facility eventually would cease to exist. Ameriport has been losing money for years, although not as much in the last two years as the amount of cargo lifts has picked up.
When the port authority opened Ameriport in 1993, spokeswoman Danelle Hunter said, “there wasn’t a facility in the region to handle containerized cargo.” Now with rail companies such as CSX and Norfolk Southern thriving here, “there really isn’t a need for Ameriport anymore.”
Hunter said the authority had nothing to do with the agreement between Pacific Rail and Norfolk Southern. “They have full control of contracts at the site and operating the site,” she said.
What frustrates Ameriport employees, such as Gary Fox, a shop steward for Local 107, is that they have worked hard despite primitive conditions to make the rail yard a success. Now they feel jilted.
“When we walked in here, we were guaranteed jobs for life,” Fox said. “We laughed at them. We couldn’t believe it. All we want to do is maintain our standard of living and make this pier grow.”
Ameriport was the port authority’s first foray into transforming itself from an agency that operated four toll bridges and the PATCO High-Speed Line into an economic-development force. But the operation – subsidized by bridge tolls – didn’t make money.
That was when day-to-day operations were turned over to Logistical Services, run by former Philadelphia Planning Commission chairman Richard Rueda. It has been losing money ever since. Rueda could not be reached for comment.